Interview - Andrew Joyce

Today we have an interview with a very special guest!! I have known Andrew for quite a few years, and would love for all of you to get to know him and what he does. Andrew is a web designer/entrepreneur, a rebelutionary, and is the founder and administrator of Into the Book. Into the Book is Andrew's first and longest-running project, and has always been full of solid content. I would encourage you all to check out Into the Book and take advantage of its resources! I'll let Andrew explain what Into the Book is, and hopefully you'll also get to know Andrew and his heart through this interview! :) 

What is Into the Book, and why was it founded? 

 Into the Book is a literature blog, at the simplest. It's a hub for finding great books and other people who enjoy great books. It's a gathering point, maybe like a library on the internet. The focus is definitely on the community, and not on amassing a huge 'database' of reviews. Through our reviews, we want to point people to great books, and through that to shape culture in our own way. 

 Long term, there's a vision for influencing culture more directly: by publishing our own books. I have a vision for promoting (and publishing) high-quality self-published books, and giving new, high-quality and upcoming authors an opportunity to get their message out to the world. None of that has directly happened yet, but the foundations are very laid, and I'm very excited about where that's going. 

 What was your inspiration to start Into the Book? 

 Easy question: Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett. I read their book and I thought, "Literature. Let's do it." At the beginning it wasn't much more than book reviews. The vision has grown since then, but reviews, at this point anyways, are still our bread and butter. There's a real lack of resources for teens who want good quality books to read. We're trying to fill that hole, and we don't do it perfectly, but things are definitely better than they were four years ago. 

Who helped to inspire you and/or to support you when you started Into the Book? 

When I started Into the Book, I pulled a lot of my close friends into the mix, including my brother. Though all of those people no longer review for ItB (instead, God has provided a crazy mix of people, most of whom I've never even met except online), they gave me the juice to keep going when times were lean. 

Actually, I'd say reviewers have been the lifeblood that's kept ItB alive. We have the community, but it's the reviewers that provide the reviews that create the community. And we've always had reviewers. That's a very neat thing. 

 What makes Into the Book unique? 

I'd say our vision is the first and greatest thing. In however small or great a way we can, we want to change literature for the better. In four years we've just managed to scratch the surface of that, but there's a huge potential for change here. The things I mentioned earlier: self-publishing, culture change, literature -- those are the ingredients that will continue to be a larger and larger part of ItB going forward. 

 A second thing, if I had to name it, would be the consistent, high-quality writing we get from teens. We're all teens, some of us less so than others (I'm nineteen, so sadly have only one year left as a teenager), but we're producing high-quality reviews on college-level books, and higher, even. That's very unique, I think, and it's a real continuation of Alex and Brett's Do Hard Things message. 

 What have you learned from running Into the Book and how have you grown (as a blogger, as a web designer, as a person, however. :))? 

 Oh man, lots of things. Let's see if I can keep this short. First off, ItB has disciplined me to be consistent in my reading, and my writing. It keeps me reading good, beneficial books often, and it gets me to articulate my thoughts about those books. That's been extremely helpful in getting me to internalize the things I learn from these books, since I think through writing. 

 As a web designer and blogger, ItB has taught me that good content is truly what matters. People will come to good content, and good content will be recognized -- like when we won Blogger's Blog of Note award in 2010. As a web designer, good design exists to facilitate and promote the content. And as a blogger, I've learned that promoting can only take you so far: ultimately, what's best is word-of-mouth advertising, and lots of fresh, new content that shows up frequently. That's what will bring new people and keep them coming back. 

 What makes you keep going with Into the Book? 

 I'd say it's the vision. I have a really big vision for Into the Book, and even though it's hard to fulfill it all, moving towards it in small steps has been really helpful. I know the goals will be achieved, eventually. And because I want to see them achieved, that's my motivation to keep going. I'll be honest, sometimes it's hard. Sites always have lean times. I'd say the key thing that's important to remember, for those of you who want to launch websites: lean times are ok. Even if the site pretty much sits there for a month, you can always build back up after that month. If you shut it down, you're done, and so is the dream. But you can always build back up. 

 What are some of the best tips you could give to those who would like to write book reviews for their blog, their friends, or a ministry? 

 First of all, come write for us! We're always (always) looking for good reviewers who are excited about literature to come work with us at ItB. We would be more than happy to have you. 

 Second, focus on conveying the book's message to potential readers. That's really what you're doing when you recommend a book, anyways. On many sites I find reviews which focus mainly on objectionable content or a checklist of problems the book has -- reviews like that do more harm than good, I'd say. We know there's a lot that's bad out there -- and our focus with ItB has always been to draw focus to the good literature. (though we do point out cruddy books, sometimes, just to save readers from wasting their time on them) This is pretty much taken directly from Philippians 4:8, which calls us to focus on "whatever is true, right, and admirable." 

 Third, don't be afraid to let your opinion shine out. A book review can be professional and still have a personal touch. In a recent review on ItB, I pointed out several places where a self-published author could have improved her book to make it even better. Don't be afraid to do things like that, and use your voice. 

What other hobbies and professional interests do you have? 

 I'm a web designer by profession, and I'm working through college with that job. ItB has partially grown out of that profession, and I've used my technical skills to keep the site up (actually, we may be looking at migrating to Wordpress over the next year). I'm a web guy, and ItB kind of grew naturally out of that. 

 I'm also a big reader, obviously, but I'm also a writer. I write various things, whether my own blog, poems, or even novels (though I've not finished any of those, nor published them). I'm a communicator through words -- it's the way I was made to communicate. So that's a big hobby of mine. 

 What do you think is next for Into the Book? 

 I mentioned this before, but I have a strong vision for the future of ItB. I'll give y'all a sneak, condensed preview here. Our soonest upcoming change is an emphasis on self-published books. This will start getting us aligned to the self-pub market, get us familiar with self-pub authors, and give us experience in finding high-quality self-published books. 

 From there, I'm looking to monetize the site, probably through sponsored results and Amazon Associates. This is an important step because it means that the site will begin to generate its own income, giving me more time to work on it, and laying a foundation for the site to continue expanding as the team invests more into it. 

Third, I'd like to see ItB move to more of a publisher's position. I'd love to see ItB be a place that draws focus to high-quality self-published books, and helps readers to navigate the sludge of the internet where literally anyone can publish a book. In tandem with that goal, I'd love to see ItB become a sort of publisher in its own right, helping authors to self-publish and distribute their books, and providing professional services such as cover and interior design at an affordable price. 

 It's a two-fold goal: it's helping readers find the high-quality books, and it's helping authors make their books high-quality. But either way the end result is quality. I love literature and I want to help make literature a richer field. 

 A lot of these goals will take time, money, and manpower that I don't have. And so they're not certain in the sense that I have a gameplan for how to make all this happen. But they are certain in the sense that I have a passion for seeing these things happen. A lot of what will happen in the next few years will be foundational, setting ItB up to be monetized, and building the framework for a lot of these bigger goals. 

 What do you think is next for you? 

 Oh man, that's a whole lot less clear than ItB itself. *chuckles* I'm headed to college, and I just graduated from high school this May. I'm going to be up in Minnesota studying Biblical Studies, so that's what's immediately next for me. Getting married and going overseas are on the horizon as well, but a few more years back. Immediately next, I'll just be going to college and living on my own; hopefully still hacking on and improving ItB as I have time :D


A huge thank you to Andrew for doing this interview!!  Please check out Into the Book!!  You won't regret it! :)